Unpack the big political and policy issues with Karen Middleton, political editor for Guardian Australia, and Emma Shortis, Senior Research for the Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs Program.

Speakers

Karen Middleton — Political Editor for Guardian Australia

Karen Middleton is Guardian Australia‘s Political Editor, taking up the role recently after eight years as chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper. Karen is a veteran of the federal parliamentary press gallery who served as its president for four years and has covered every government since Bob Hawke’s in the late 1980s.

She has worked across print and broadcast media, including a decade as bureau chief for SBS Television, and is a regular panellist on ABC TV’s Insiders and contributor to the Ten Network’s The Project and the Nine Network’s Weekend Today. Karen is a fortnightly correspondent for Radio New Zealand, and occasional contributor to Monocle24 radio London and Turkey’s international television news network TRT World. The author of two books, An Unwinnable War – Australia in Afghanistan (2011) and Albanese – Telling it Straight (2016), she is a former Churchill fellow and was awarded an honorary doctorate by her alma mater, the University of Canberra, in 2020.

Emma Shortis — Senior Researcher at the Australia Institute

Dr Emma Shortis is Senior Researcher in the International & Security Affairs Program. Emma is historian and writer, focused on the history and politics of the United States and its role in the world. She uses her expertise in history to interpret and explain what is happening in the world today, and what it means for Australia, in a compassionate and accessible way. In a conversation often dominated by the same voices, Emma offers a fresh perspective on international relations grounded in moral questions about how we might imagine a post-American future.

Emma’s first book, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the United States, was published by Hardie Grant in 2021. She writes regularly for Australian and international outlets, and appears regularly on Australian radio and television.

Ebony Bennett — Deputy Director of the Australia Institute

Ebony Bennett is deputy director of the Australia Institute and host of its popular webinar series and Follow the Money podcast.

Beginning her career as a journalist in the Canberra press gallery for the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review, Ebony has worked in federal politics in a variety of roles for almost 20 years and has published research on climate change and energy, gender and street harassment and contributed a chapter to Morrison’s Miracle: The 2019 Australian Federal Election (ANU Press 2020) and The Nordic Edge: Policy Possibilities for Australia (MUP 2021).

Ebony is a regular commentator and contributor across broadcast and print media, she appears regularly as a commentator on ABC and Sky News and has a fortnightly column in The Canberra Times.